Bhikkhu Yuttadhammo says on his youtube pages that he thinks the abdomen is where we should focus our attention when sitting - he is also leaning much towards Jhana being a distraction rather than a means to an end - if I have understood him correctly.

I know this has been done to bits in the Great Jhana Debate, however......

A couple of quick questions if I may.

1. Can we gain as much insight from anapanasati (focussing on the breath at the nose) as we can by watching the abdomen (Mahasi style)?

2. Or do we need to back off from pursuing Jhana altogether to progress?

Ven. Yuttadhammo teaches Insight Satipatthana based meditation as a "shortcut" to Nibbana. He doesnt emphasise Samatha much, he does aknowledge its benefit but somewhat underestimates the importance imo. Afaik he will occasionally advice and teach it to counter specific issues that a student has.

When meditating for insight it is of no ultimate diffrence where one watches the breath because one is going back and forth between all four Satipatthanas and they are all-encompasing.

It's worth saying, yet again, that mindfulness of the abdominal movements is not mindfulness of breathing, but paying attention to the element of motion among the four primary elements. This method is described (very briefly) in the section on attention to the elements (dhātumanasikārapabbaṃ) of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta.

Sayādaw U Paṇḍita wrote:However, in the third and last watch of the night, the Buddha-to-be was no longer absorbed in ānāpānassati, but had turned his great intellect to the doctrine of Dependent Origination (paṭiccasamuppāda). ‘Through ignorance are conditioned rebirth producing volitions or kamma-formations (saṅkhārā), and so on.’ Then, just before the break of day, while meditating on the five aggregates, the physical and mental phenomena of existence, the Buddha-to-be attained the path and fruition of Arahantship, and the Omniscience of a Supremely Enlightened Buddha. Thus, Buddhahood was won not through ānāpānassati, but through mindfulness on the physical and mental phenomena of the five aggregates.”